Mars, snickers threat aimed at unnamed organisation

Reporter: Tracy Bowden

MAXINE McKEW: Each year, Australians eat about $1.5 billion worth of chocolate, so it's no surprise that a threat to contaminate two of the most popular chocolate bars on the market has sparked yet another massive product recall. Masterfoods acted on Friday, warning people not to eat Snickers or Mars bars in New South Wales, and a statewide recall program is under way. Yet in an odd twist, the threats contained in letters to Masterfoods are directed at another organisation which has not been publicly identified. Tracy Bowden reports.

TRACY BOWDEN: Every week, Australians consume close to a million Mars and Snickers bars. But in the nation's biggest market, they're coming off the shelves and out of vending machines after an extortion threat set to cost makers Masterfoods millions of dollars.

ANDY WESTON-WEBB, PRESIDENT, MASTERFOODS AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND: My team are all working very hard, pulling together to reach as many people as possible and to focus on getting product out of stores now, so that we can destroy it.

JOE O'BRIEN, ABC NEWSREADER: The recall of Mars and Snickers bars continued today with 5,000 retailers across the State removing them from the shelves.

TRACY BOWDEN: Masterfoods ordered the recall of the chocolate bars throughout New South Wales last Friday, after receiving the third in a series of threatening letters.

ANDY WESTON-WEBB: We moved immediately into action, because there was an explicit threat made claiming that seven Mars or Snickers bars had been contaminated in some way, and placed in stores in Sydney.

DR JULIAN PARMEGIANI, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: There are a lot of things that can be done easily that show society to be vulnerable in certain areas. One of them is food tampering, the other is obviously public transport, areas where large crowds gather. These are all what one would call soft targets.

TRACY BOWDEN: Forensic psychiatrist Dr Julian Parmegiani says these threats are usually made by a person with a specific grudge against a company.

DR JULIAN PARMEGIANI: These are anti-social tendencies, psychopathic tendencies. People tend to be fairly remorseless about the intended victim or what they might suffer in being poisoned. It shows that they have a certain degree of callousness, and probably a high sense of entitlement. They think they're more important than the average person within society.

TRACY BOWDEN: But what makes this case unusual is the fact that the threats in the letters are not directed at Masterfoods, but at another unconnected organisation. Have you got any idea why your company was selected? Is there any vague association with this other organisation?

ANDY WESTON-WEBB: There is none. They couldn't be further apart. We're in completely different lines of business. There is no connection. And there is no apparent link to either Snickers or Mars, other than they've become the object of the extortionist's anger or poisoning more specifically.

TRACY BOWDEN: I presume the other organisation involved doesn't make a product that you could poison?

ANDY WESTON-WEBB : I can't be drawn on the other company but there is no connection between our two business. We couldn't be further apart.

TRACY BOWDEN: This is the latest in a string of attempts to extort large Australian companies. In March this year, Australia's biggest construction company, Multiplex, disclosed a threat to shoot its crane drivers unless it handed over $50 million.

ARNOTTS SPOKESMAN: This is a very bad day for Arnotts. I think it's a very bad day for the community of Australia.

TRACY BOWDEN: In 1997, Arnotts biscuits was forced to withdraw its entire stock nationwide, when an extortionist threaten to poison one of its top selling lines, the Monte Carlo. The extortion cost Arnotts $22 million. Three years later, Herron paracetamol capsules were laced with strychnine and Panadol was also taken off the market after its products were contaminated.

SUE CATO, COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT: The best spin in these situations is actually truth and it's the only spin.

SUE CATO: One of the really important things that you learn in this game is that your end game, you go and you work out the exact - the most horrid outcome you could imagine and plan for it.

ANDY WESTON-WEBB: We have established crisis management techniques. The obvious one here that was very important is our ability to recall quickly. So that we and our major retail partners have established procedures where we can move quickly into action a and start getting product off shelf.

TRACY BOWDEN: Many more extortion threats are made than are ever made public, and forensic experts help assess how seriously a threat should be taken.

DR JULIAN PARMEGIANI: When one receives a letter, there's first of all the way it's set up, and what it looks like gives you some idea of the person's state of mind. Secondly, there is the content of the letter and that is the kind of threat that they're putting forward, whether it's credible, and whether it shows a certain knowledge or ability to carry through the threat.

TRACY BOWDEN: Today, efforts continued to ensure no Mars or Snickers bars are on sale anywhere in New South Wales. And while the focus thus far has been on the public health, this incident must have a dramatic impact on the financial health of Masterfoods.

SUE CATO: You're talking about millions. You're talking about revenue from lost sales, you're actually talking about the cost of recalling the product from the market, you're talking about the amount of money that will have to be spent in just the marketing but also in getting that product back into market. It's a very, very costly exercise and on every single level.

ANDY WESTON-WEBB : I have no idea how much it will cost us. It obviously depends on how long the threat remains and when we judge it's safe to go back on shelves. My main concern at the moment is making sure we do this in the right way and we protect people.

TRACY BOWDEN: Masterfoods's current predicament must send a chill through corporate Australia. No matter how well prepared companies are to deal with this kind of threat, there's little they can do to prevent it.

ANDY WESTON-WEBB : Realistically, if somebody's this determined and wants to threaten the community in this way - and that's indeed what we're talking about here, we're talking about a threat against the community - there are only so many precautions that can be taken.